I don't have any numbers, but I wouldn't say there was a lot, because European cities were pretty established, so hard to start a new life there. But I do know that people from my Mom's village were doing trades with Europeans, and my Great Great Grandmother, was called Marianna and my Great Aunt was called Juliette. They also could speak French in the early 1900s, well before WW1 or WW2. Many people think that French was introduced after WW2 during the French Mandate, but Lebanese have been travelling overseas for a long time, and had ties to many countries. I think I read somewhere that even going back to 1600s they had ties to France.

On the other hand, there are also ties to Greece from the Orthodox side that date back > 1500 years.

But getting back to Europe, I would say mass migration were popular to South America, especially Brazil (from my Dad's village, many people went there, in addition to the US, and North America. I even met a Lebanese friend from Curaçao, and when I was at his house, they didn't speak Lebanese, they spoke Papiamento! Basically, they adapt and learn whatever language is needed. Remember, Lebanon was once a Roman Province (although Latin wasn't spoke everywhere), and before Greek language was prevalent, and before that, Syriac (western aramaic). In the year 600, Arabic started moving in. So having to learn new languages is not new in our history.

So far, what I've done is take my Dad's stories, and try to link them to actual records, and so far he's been right! He loves history, and my mom is a walking encyclopedia of family names. They know the villages the names come from.

Oh, I even found graves listed in the US from early 1800s with the name Khouri, and it was of a soldier. I suck at US history, so whatever war was back then, there was a Lebanese person there.